Editor's Note

The Charge

"Anything is possib-l-l-l-l-l-l-le!" —Kevin
Garnett

The Case

I am a loyal Knicks fan. And, as such, I have been in a near-constant state
of dismay for the last, oh, eight years. Early playoff exits,
franchise-record-setting futility, sexual harassment cases, "Fire
Isiah!" chants, Jerome James, Steve Francis, James Dolan's obliviousness,
New York Post editorials decrying he sad state of a once-proud
franchise—man it's been a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ng time since the
days of John Starks, Charles Oakley and Anthony Mason. I only bring this up
because, since transplanting to New England nine years ago, I've finally been
able to get a taste of what it's like to root for a winner—at least by
proxy.

The Red Sox, the Patriots and, now, moist recently, the Celtics have all
delivered the hardware to oft-suffering Northeast faithful. And as fun as it was
to watch the former teams win their big ones, this last championship run by the
Celtics was probably my favorite.

Basketball's my bag and watching a club that has fully subscribed to the
team-first approach and employing fundamentals like defense and rebounding to
win it all is a joy. Plus any team that can make a poseur like Sasha Vujajic
throw a toddler-fit on the bench in front of the world is all right in my
book.

If you've followed any of the NBA at all in the last year or so (and I fully
grant that most of you will for good reason say no) then you're no doubt
familiar with the dramatic turn-around of the Boston Celtics, chronicled on this
disc. Last year, they sported the second-worst record in franchise history, had
a disgruntled superstar in Paul Pierce and struck out in the draft by landing
only the fifth pick. Then GM Danny Ainge made a pair of dazzling moves, which
brought perennial All-Star Ray Allen and former MVO Kevin Garnett to Boston and
the revitalized team, now a defense-focused juggernaut rolled through the
2007-2008 regular season, had a couple of close calls against the Hawks and
Cavs, smacked down the powerhouse Pistons and proceeded to embarrass the
heavily-favored Lakers in six games, punctuating their post-season romp with a
near-40 point blowout against Kobe and the gang.

This story is told well in the hour-plus documentary, hitting all the major
personnel moves, the coaching strategies and the player mentalities and
supplementing it with interviews, candid behind-the-scenes B-roll and game
footage. It's a solid documentary that dwells on the important moments—the
surprising, character-testing Hawks series, Paul Pierce and Lebron James's epic
Game 7 scoring duel, the amazing Game 4 comeback against the Lakers and, of
course, the Game 6 clincher blowout.

A decent array of bonus features accompany the main program—the fourth
quarters of Game 7 against Cleveland and Game 6 at Detroit, "I Am a
Celtic" feature on the franchise, some recycled segments of Kevin Garnett's
1997 All-Star appearance and a Paul Pierce feature from 2002, Robert Parish
talking about the "Big Three" he was a part of and the new "Big
Three," a fairly moving conversation between Bill Russell and KG, another
KG interview, a spot on Danny Ainge's wheeling and dealing and a Ray Allen PSA
from NBA Cares.

One big downer: The main program receives a fake (non-anamorphic) widescreen
transfer.